A unique exploration of a lesser-known side of Henry Cowell.

Henry Cowell wrote songs for the half century spanning 1914-1964. They constitute a central part of his compositional profile and there are more than 180 of them out of his 966 known compositions. His songs are a vital, if sadly unknown, part of the rich history which is the American art song and in them, Cowell used some of his most forward looking and experimental ideas. His songs clearly delineate the several periods of his stylistic evolution - the naive, youthful works, the early avant-garde and "ultra modernist" works, the folk and modally-influenced music, and the late works which synthesize all these earlier styles. Most of Cowell's songs, however, have remained under-performed and virtually unknown, for they exist only as manuscripts in the Library of Congress and the New York Public Library. To date only sixteen of Cowell's songs for voice and piano have been published. During his lifetime, his songs were premiered by many of the finest singers of the day including Roland Hayes, Eva Gauthier, Radiana Pazmor, Charles Holland and Theodor Uppman. Most often, he composed single songs but there are a few exceptions including the sets by Catherine Riegger, Mother Goose, Padraic Colum and Langston Hughes recorded here. As editor for many years of the ground-breaking New Music Editions, Cowell selflessly advanced the songs of many other composers including Ives, Copland, Charles Seeger, Vivian Fine, Paul Bowles, Elie Siegmeister, Ernst Bacon, Leo Ornstein, Otto Luening and Ben Weber. In all this time, he only published two of his own songs.

Review:

"Henry Cowell worte over 200 songs, many of which are lost; these 32 cover a full half-century span, from1914 to 1964....The earliest are pure late-Romantic music, but he soon begins to add dissonance and such piano techniques as strumming and plucking the strings and executing fistfuls (even armfuls) of block chords....Melodies are plain and straightforward, whereas accompaniments range from very simple to extremely sophisticated....The performers sing well...Rehearing Cowell play his own piano music, on a Folkways LP, suggests that he would want more variety and color here. Since, however, I've gone 50 years without hearing a single Cowell song, my primary reaction is gratitude for this issue." (Fanfare)